


Parallel Distributed Processing

by BlackSamuraiLiterature



Category: Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-24
Updated: 2016-05-24
Packaged: 2018-06-10 12:43:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6956902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackSamuraiLiterature/pseuds/BlackSamuraiLiterature
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roland recognized that he was out of place with those present to greet Seraph on the surface of the sun, so he did not understand why he was there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Parallel Distributed Processing

**Author's Note:**

> SPOILER WARNING FOR
> 
> DIGITAL DEVIL SAGA 2 ENDGAME

Roland must have eaten something foul, for his throat choked in reaction to the bile building in his stomach. It did not burn like it should have or used to, yet the feeling of something solid pressing against his throat as he tried to chough the content out agitated him. Indra swung open the mouth guards on its face in response to regurgitating something through its bloody teeth. It was an item coated in a thick, dark ooze that dripped between the discus in Roland’s demonized hand.

            His disgust with vomiting never dulled even after the ritual drinking; then the over eating, for he thought the pain in his stomach and distaste in his mouth was offensive. Indra’s natural state was the desire to devour. He thought that it was why he continued to feast on the muscle, fat, and flesh of his fallen foes, but the concept of continuing to consume started to weigh in the back of his head. He no longer had a body to nourish, and he thought it odd that Solar Data would need it. It was not as if his opponents were of a body either. He knew he was dead, and he knew they were merely data.

            “Data, huh…”1 Roland thought aloud, and in his own skin handed over the item to Seraph. He had never known Sera, not outside of stolen reports and pirated videos, and he was not in Serph’s company long either. Their crossings were shallow and fleeting, and yet he stood before their unison in grace and content as Seraph.

Their joined face seemed otherworldly. Seraph’s large eyes against the petite nose neatly conformed in a flowing, round jawline was strangely feline. It was much to the nature of that cat Roland reminisced from a short while previous:

_______________________________________ 

He could not remember the last time he had felt at peace before facing down the turbine within the power plant; then displaced temporarily on the Sun. It was not an afterlife he had expected nor thought he would reach, but he was not alone on its surface. Those Roland grew to know as comrades were there, those he knew only in name and theory, and his true friend—parts of him at least—were fixated on his right. Everyone was there to support Sera, and everyone had known Sera, connected with her, everyone except him.

            And he knew he was out of place.

            Roland watched in idle lull the one he called a friend before anyone else present walked away from his side. He wondered if it was irony or scorn—due punishment—for committing the very same act to the other years ago. His friend greeted his other comrade with the same soft understanding Roland knew in life as their data merged.

            Then he knew he was the one out of place. But he did not care.

            On the Sun Roland recognized fulfillment, so when he noticed the man in front dip with hesitation when Seraph spoke his name in a forgiving tone, Roland laid his hand on the other’s shoulder in reassurance.

            “This is something you have to do,”2 Roland said gently with a smile, and gave him a push. He knew it was best that Heat returned with his comrades—his friends—and he had far more might remaining in him, his eagerness for redemption, than Roland felt he could have ever compile in himself. Quietly, Roland dragged himself away from the group to the far distance and stood and watched. And breathed and slowed. And thought groggily: ‘ _Why am I here? I never knew her. So why…_ ’

His mind recalled the Power Plant. Roland’s hand did not prickle with phantom sensation, but he distinctly remembered its feeling from being amid the broken monitor’s loose wires and hardware; feeling—willing—the sentiment: open the gate. And he remembered the gate obeyed.

‘… _would Sera_ _will it?_ ’

            “You already know the answer you seek,” a dragging chime of a voice replied.

He recognized the voice from earlier, the one that addressed Seraph, but never attributed it to anything. At the time his focus had become too fixated on Seraph like all of the others had, but he noticed at his feet sat the cat he had heard in stories from the Embryon. It sat, glancing upward in such still, with its one grey ear and the resounding of bells the identifiers.

_______________________________________

The memory crossed with Roland’s glance unable to separate from the center point where Seraph’s silver hair clashed against the black to its side. Roland had then spoken soberly: “Then is there any difference between this object and myself?”3

            Seraph let out a soft smile in reply and curled their fingers around the item in their hand, queuing Roland to release his own from it. The actions were slow and in grace, and in the back of his thoughts he heard the memory continue:

 

“For you have begun to See,” the cat said, “and so has she. The knowledge you all have learned was not in vain, for it has been passed onto your successor, and then he in turn will pass it unto his. It will grow. So we ask…”

            “Please come with us, Roland.” Seraph finished.

* * *

1, 3.  _Shin Megmai Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2_. Atlus Co. Ltd. April 5, 2005. video game. 

2.  _Shin Megmai Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2_. Atlus Co. Ltd. April 5, 2005. video game.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Commentary: Thank you anonymous for requesting this, because I needed an excuse to write this. It had been a thought of mine for quite some time to address the unique circumstance of Roland’s appearance on the Sun. Game mechanics aside (the fact he’s a commandable character) he’s kind of the odd man out. I will admit though: I feel as if I had not given this fic its due justice, or rather true interpretative justice. Despite that, I hope the fic was still satisfying.


End file.
